What does 'Consolidate Library' mean?

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Level 1

5 points

What does 'Consolidate Library' mean?

What does the menu Advanced, Consolidate Library actually do? It seems a bi ominous, but I can't find a clear explanation of what it actually does?
Thanks

iPod 2G, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jul 29, 2008 5:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,791 points

Jul 29, 2008 11:11 AM in response to PeterL777

Advanced/consolidate copies all of your music files that may reside in various places on your computer into the location of your iTunes music folder (the one you have selected in preferences/advanced/general).

Now iTunes knows where to look for all the music on your computer.

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Answer 2

PT

Level 7

20,888 points

Jul 30, 2008 1:14 PM in response to PeterL777

To add a bit more info to Jeff's excellent post...
If you already have your preferences set up so that anything you add to the library is copied to the iTunes music folder (a checkbox to select in preferences under Advanced) then you don't need the consolidate command as your stuff is already in the folder.
If you de-select this option to copy to the iTunes Music folder, then as you add stuff to your library, they are added to the library but accessed from wherever they were added from. So some songs could be accessed in the My Music folder, others from the Desktop, and others from another drive, etc. When you use consolidate, it copies all those files into the central location and changes the iTunes library to now access them all from the iTunes Music folder.
One other note. The "iTunes Music" folder is actually whatever location is specified in the iTunes preferences under the "iTunes Music folder location" regardless of what the folder is actually called. By default it starts off as "C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" for Windows users, but you can change the location to any folder with any name and that will be the "iTunes Music" folder.
Have fun,
Patrick

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